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Over the last several years we have heard a large number of defense commentators talk about force level s and budgets. In the case of the Navy, discussions have revolved around former JCS Chairman General Colin Powell's 450 ship base force of two years ago and how that number evolved to the roughly 340 ship force laid out in the September 1993 Bottom Up Review. Numbers of aircraft carriers, surface combatants and attack sub­ marines are often commented on as the levels shrink from the late eighties high to much lower turn-of - the-century figures.